My last name is pronounced shi-LAD-ee (roughly rhymes with beef patty). I love puns, cacti, eating out, and good punctuation in text messages. I'm a lifelong Latter-day Saint and I'm gay.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Plans? What Plans?

I did a pretty poor job of planning my summer this
year. I really didn't enjoy my last year
of school so instead of planning jobs and activities that would enrich my
academic portfolio (like a lot of my colleagues did), I decided to close my
eyes this summer and pretend that school didn't exist. I was so excited to just not be in school
this summer that I didn't get a job which started to seem like a horrible
mistake when I arrived in Seattle on May 25th and didn't have anything to do
until late August. My friends and family
in Washington were thrilled to have me around so I decided to just hang out
there for the rest of the summer (the 100+ temperatures in Tucson were very unappealing
compared to the 70 and partly cloudy weather of Seattle).

I managed to get a sweet, part-time job from the University
of Arizona for six weeks that I could do remotely in Washington through June. This made me feel like much less of bum since
I had been feeling a lot like a bum lately.
Let me give you an example. I was
watching TV with my parents last week and I said, "I really feel like eating some
brownie batter." Without a moment's
hesitation my dad said, "I'm on it," got up, and whipped some up for
us. My dad brought out three spoons and
in twenty minutes my parents and I had devoured the whole batch. One of my dad's mottoes is: "Nothing
tastes as good as thin feels." That
does not apply to chocolate.

Since I was feeling slightly bum-like (a bumpkin, if you
will), I started thinking of ways I could be productive this summer. Two Sundays ago my brother Jay recommended
that I contact the company he had worked for last summer. It sounded like a sweet gig so I emailed the
head honcho on Monday morning. I didn't
hear from him on Tuesday or Wednesday, and by Thursday I was consuming so much
sugar that my memory started to fade and I mostly forgot about it.

On Sunday night I went over to the Kecks' to beat them at a
game of Ticket to Ride. As I was leaving
their house I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. I answered it and it was the head honcho my
brother had told me to contact. He asked
if we could chat, but I was driving and talking on my cell phone which is a big
no-no in Washington. So I said,
"Yeah, I'd love to chat. Just let
me put in my blue tooth," which I then did. Unfortunately, I just got a new cell phone
and I pushed the wrong button and hung up on a near stranger who I was hoping
would pay me money. I called him right
back, we chatted, and he offered me a summer a job in Washington which I
promptly accepted. I start right after
the 4th of July.

The only problem with being employed in Washington is that
my car is in Arizona. Luckily, I had
purchased a flight back to Tucson over a month ago thinking that I would be in
Arizona for summer. I'm now in Las Vegas
en route to Tucson. I'll be there for
two days and then on Friday I'm driving up to Utah where I'll be for two days
and then it's off to Washington to spend the summer in a verdant paradise
making some money. I'm thrilled. Unfortunately, Utah friends, I'm very sorry,
but I won't be able to see most of you on this super-fast trip through Utah. However, I will be back
later this month and we can hang out then.

Mostly, I'm just amazed at how everything works out. Whether it be getting a teaching job the day
before school starts (which has happened to me twice and both times I wasn't
technically qualified for the job) or getting a summer job in June, things work
out. I remember when I was trying to
find a place to live in Tucson last year.
I only knew a few people there and I knew it would be lonely at
first. I prayed and prayed that Heavenly
Father would send me to a place with people who would become like family to
me. And then I moved in with Kevin and
he and his family really are like family to me.
His dad has even called me his third son (he has two sons). I've seen it over and over and over again in
my life; things always work out.

If anyone wants a lift, I'm driving from Arizona to Utah on
Friday and then from Utah to Washington on Monday. Road trips with me resemble this.